What does studio learning look like for distance students? What workspaces best suit future professionals? Interior Architecture & Product Design (IAPD) students recently researched these questions through a corporate collaboration.

Renowned furniture manufacturer Herman Miller, Inc. funded the collaboration, allowing IAPD students to hear from company leaders, conduct research and tour corporate headquarters in Michigan. Although K-State retained all intellectual property, the students’ designs were compiled into books presented to Herman Miller as the collaboration concluded.

Such project-based collaborative experiences are invaluable for K-State students, particularly when paired with insight from industry partners, according to Katherine Ankerson, IAPD department head.

“The value was the ability to interact with those who are on the front edge of what we’re going to see for the future,” Ankerson said. “That sort of experience is difficult to duplicate in a traditional classroom.”